Katie J.M. Baker

I'm very conflicted re: Taylor Swift. I agree with Dodai that she's a feminist's nightmare, and I understand that her new single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," is essentially one very long redundant whine geared towards spurned 13-year-olds.

I thought Lady Gaga should have won album of the year at the Grammys. I wrote about it. I received…
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But I can't stop listening to it. I. CAN'T. STOP. Last Friday night, my little brother and I spent two hours playing it over and over before finding a karaoke version on Spotify so we could belt it out ourselves. (We may have been drinking.) We then went to a party where we commandeered the host's iPod so we could listen to the song some more. I've started listening to it when I wake up in the morning, before I have coffee, because T. Swift's annoying yet so fucking catchy "ooooooh ooh ooh ooh ooh"s have the same jolty effect.

Apparently, I'm not the only one: "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was just released last week but has already sold 623,000 downloads in the United States, the biggest one-week total for any female artist. The song is also Taylor's first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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I went through a similar crisis last spring, when I was an early adopter of "Call Me Maybe" and listened to it so many times that I'm pretty sure my neighbors now ignore me in the hallway because they were forced to listen to it over, and over, and over through our thin walls. (I hope they like Taylor Swift...) But you know what? Fuck it. I LIKE POP MUSIC. This is who I am. And I will play "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" on repeat until I lose all of my friends, and maybe my job (my co-workers aren't fans, although I got them into "Call Me Maybe" eventually, so maybe we just have to give it time) — or until Rihanna or someone releases something even catchier.